A village headman with a few muskets reunited Burma and renamed Yangon
In 1752, with an invading army at the gates of the royal capital, the chief of a small Burmese village declared himself king. His own father begged him to surrender. Within five years Alaungpaya had reunified the country, founded a dynasty, and given the growing town of Dagon the name Yangon.
He was born Aung Zeya, meaning successful victory, on 24 August 1714 in Moksobo, a small settlement of perhaps several hundred homes northwest of Ava, in the valley of the Mu. His family had run the valley for generations, and in his early twenties he took over as village chief. An English envoy later described him as unusually tall, about 1.80 metres. As the court at Ava weakened, Manipuri raiders burned villages year after year, and local gentry began organising their own defence around him.
In 1740 Mon rebels in the south split off, setting up a revived Hanthawaddy Kingdom based at Bago. By early 1752 its forces, armed with French-supplied guns, reached Ava and demanded submission. Aung Zeya rallied 46 villages and on 29 February proclaimed himself Alaungpaya, meaning future Buddha. Ava fell in March. He fortified his village, renamed Shwebo, with a stockade and moat, and cleared the surrounding jungle and filled the wells.
Mistaking Ava's capture for total victory, the southern command pulled back two-thirds of its army. Alaungpaya's men wiped out the first detachments and survived a month-long siege, and recruits poured in. He retook Ava on 3 January 1754, swept the Irrawaddy Delta in 1755 and captured Dagon, then spent 14 months besieging the French-defended port of Thanlyin before it fell in July 1756. Bago was taken in May 1757, ending its 17-year-old kingdom.
Tribute followed from Chiang Mai and southern governors, and his forces reclaimed Shan states that China had annexed. Suspecting British traders of arming rebels, he had their fort at Cape Negrais overrun in 1759. He fell ill during a campaign in Siam and died on 11 May 1760. Burmese tradition ranks him with Anawrahta and Bayinnaung as one of the country's three greatest kings.
Source: Alaungpaya
